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ACT DROUGHT & WATER DASHBOARD

Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) River Basin Drought & Water Dashboard

Explore timely and reliable information on past, present, and future drought conditions to increase drought early warning capacity and support decision making across the ACT Basin.

44.23%

of USGS streamgages in the ACT Basin have below-normal 28-day average streamflow

33

counties in the ACT Basin are designated in drought by the USDA

Change of
0
since last week
Change of
0
since last month
52nd

wettest March on record, over the past 130 years

Increase of
1.88
inches from normal
since last month
35th

wettest year to date over the past 130 years (January-March 2024)

Increase of
0.84
since last week

Drought & Dryness Categories
% of ACT Basin
0.3
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Percent of Normal Precipitation (%)
100%

Streamflow and Reservoir Conditions

Streamflow Conditions
Streamflow Conditions
U.S. Drought Monitor
USACE Lake Action Zones
Alabama Power Company Lakes & Dams

Future Conditions

U.S. Drought Outlooks

Drought Is Predicted To...
Drought Is Predicted To...

Quantitative Precipitation Forecast

Predicted Inches of Precipitation
1.75
Predicted Inches of Precipitation
1.75

Historical Drought Conditions and Impacts: ACT River Basin

U.S. Drought Monitor

The U.S. Drought Monitor (2000–present) depicts the location and intensity of drought across the country. Every Thursday, authors from NOAA, USDA, and the National Drought Mitigation Center produce a new map based on their assessments of the best available data and input from local observers. The map uses five categories: Abnormally Dry (D0), showing areas that may be going into or are coming out of drought, and four levels of drought (D1–D4). Learn more.

Drought Response in the ACT River Basin

The ACT River Basin contains sixteen reservoir projects. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Mobile District operates five federally owned reservoirs, while the Alabama Power Company (APC) owns and operates the remaining eleven dams—seven on the Coosa River and four on the Tallapoosa River. 

In times of drought, the USACE and APC work together to enact conservation measures across the basin’s reservoirs, following the Alabama Drought Response Operation Plan (ADROP). This plan defines three “drought intensity levels” for the basin, which activate certain drought management actions.

Drought Level 1 occurs when one of the below conditions are met:

  1. Low basin inflow
  2. Low state line flow
  3. Low composite conservation storage in APC reservoirs.

Drought Levels 2 and 3—which indicate more severe drought conditions and bring additional drought management actions—occur when two or three of the above conditions are met, respectively.

Bridge over the Coosa River